FORUM:When it’s time for rollout, IT is inundated with requests, concerns and needs
for troubleshooting. Are there any steps an
association can take ahead of time to ease the
burden on IT or to set realistic expectations?

Mercado: IT needs to create, or have the AMS
provider facilitate, multiple environments where the
system can be tested. Best practices require at the
very least three environments other than production:
Development, System Test and User Acceptance
Test environments. Development is usually a sandbox that developers use to code and unit test the
AMS. When this is complete, changes are moved
to the System Test environment. This is where the
AMS is fully tested (aka regression testing), which
includes integration points with other systems.

When this is approved, then changes will move tothe User Acceptance Testing environment. This iswhere changes are thoroughly tested by businessusers before it goes to production. During imple-mentation, a new environment can be setup. Thisis usually called the Training environment. This is amirror of the Production environment, but it allowsusers to make mistakes and familiarize themselveswith the new system.

Business units are also responsible for generating documentation addressing the new workflows needed with the new system. This is often
overlooked, but it is critical to understand that
workflows will change and organizational processes
will be modified to work with the new system. I
have seen organizations going as far as “certifying”
business users in different functionalities before
allowing them to use the system in production.

Finally, IT should expect to have more activity
during the first few weeks, even after planning
based on the best practices presented above.